Shaughnessy v. United States Ex Rel. Mezei

345 U.S. 206 (1953)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P was born in Gibraltar to Hungarian or Romanian parents and lived in the United States from 1923 to 1948. In May, he sailed for Europe, to visit his dying mother in Rumania. Denied entry there, he remained in Hungary for some 19 months, due to 'difficulty in securing an exit permit.' He eventually obtained a quota immigration visa issued by the American Consul in Budapest, he proceeded to France and boarded the Ile de France in Le Havre bound for New York. On February 9, 1950, he was temporarily excluded from the United States by an immigration inspector acting pursuant to the Passport Act. P was received at Ellis Island. After reviewing the evidence, the Attorney General on May 10, 1950, ordered the temporary exclusion to be made permanent without a hearing before a board of special inquiry, on the 'basis of information of a confidential nature, the disclosure of which would be prejudicial to the public interest.' P's entry would be prejudicial to the public interest for security reasons. Twice he shipped out to return whence he came; France and Great Britain refused him permission to land. The State Department has unsuccessfully negotiated with Hungary for his readmission. P personally applied for entry to about a dozen Latin-American countries but all turned him down. P sat on Ellis Island because this country shut him out and others were unwilling to take him in. P filed a series of habeas corpus writs. After 4 attempts the court sustained the writ. The District Judge, vexed by the problem of 'an alien who has no place to go,' did not question the validity of the exclusion order but deemed further 'detention' after 21 months excessive and justifiable only by affirmative proof of P’s danger to public safety. D declined to divulge the evidence, even in camera. The District Court directed P's conditional parole on bond. The Court of Appeals affirmed. Judge Learned Hand, dissenting, stated: The Attorney General's order was one of 'exclusion' and not 'deportation'; P's transfer from ship to shore on Ellis Island conferred no additional rights; in fact, no alien so situated 'can force us to admit him at all.' D appealed.